India is redefining fashion the prêt-a-porter way. Vinod Kaul explains how.

Flashback, 2000:You saw a designer outfit and imagined yourself wearing it. But where in the world were you going to buy it from? Where was the money to buy it? To top it all, where did you think you were going to go wearing it?

Present, 2004: You want to shop for Rs 1,500. You walk into a mall to check out office wear options. Enter Shopper's Stop; you realise that you can buy a Rohit Bal label for that money! You saunter down further and enter 'Be', where a saleswoman tells you about five other designers that fit your budget and taste. And then, you can buy more of such labels at Pantaloon's Springboard!

Future, 2006: You wake up in the morning and ponder over what to wear to work and your options comprise Rohit Bal, Priyadarshini Rao and more. You are the same person; so what is it that has led to this change? Higher disposable income coupled with designer wear becoming more wearable, available and affordable. Prêt-a-porter or ready-to-wear is the new mantra for your wardrobe. With just a little extra money you can now get your favourite designerwear in your wardrobe in the form that you like.

The Retail Landscape
Five years back if you wanted to check out designerwear, you had to go all the way to a studio at one end of the town. Today, it is so widely available that you can find it in multi-brand retail outlets. The success of 'Be' - a chain of multi-designer stores by Raymond, showcasing prêt collections of 14 prominent Indian designers has left no doubt as to the market success of these ventures.

Pantaloons launched their first designerwear section called 'Springboard' that retails prêt collections of well-known designers. Shopper's Stop has also recently launched 'Buzz', a designer-wear section that offers prêt collections of nine designers. These collections will be specially created as per the price guidelines provided by the company.

Most of these stores retail in the broad price range of Rs 400 to Rs 5,000. As a collective move to promote prêt, several designers have also set up stores in speciality malls to increase consumer accessibility towards the brands. These malls house retail outlets of many designers under one roof. The year 2003 has also witnessed several prêt labels, such as Balance by Rohit, Inde Pret by Raghuvendra Rathore, CHAI by Narendra Kumar, Le Spice by Suneet Varma, etc. The Indian consumer now has much more to choose from.

Lakme India Fashion Week, organised every year by Fashion Design Council of India, has been the greatest influence in bringing about this change. The growth of fashion industry in any country in the world, be it France, Italy or the USA, is associated with the fashion weeks held in those countries. Fashion Weeks have remained the key meeting grounds for designers, buyers and media. It finally results not only in various options to shop from but also the way you dress and look as the trends are filtered to you through newspapers, magazines, shops, etc.

Fashion, they say, is a state of mind. It is about creativity and art. Our designers are striving hard to make this acceptable to you in the form you prefer. Behind all the glamour you see, goes in a lot of hard work. It is events like LIFW that make India stand on the global map of creativity. We have both talent and heritage in our coun-try, when combined together; it becomes a force to reckon with.
Vinod Kaul is the Executive Director of Fashion Design Council of India